1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of electronic communication devices and pertains particularly to methods and apparatus for entering alpha-numeric characters, common to text-based communication, through a physical keypad, or a keyboard present on a device.
2. Description of Related Art
The consumer market currently bears proof of proliferation of products for communicating our thoughts and actions. Cellular telephones, computers and voice recognition systems are just a few of the many ways our society has developed systems and devices for communication. But regrettably, the greatest numbers of visually impaired people have not been afforded the same opportunity in the current communications market.
Persons that are blind or severely visually impaired require special input devices to interact with electronic communications and computing devices. Although there are a variety of devices available to the visually impaired, many of them are cost prohibitive or require a steep learning curve for a user to operate. While technology has been beneficial in devices for the blind, more innovation is required in order to extend current market product capabilities to those having visual impairments or sight-related disabilities. Those who are blind often resort to some other structured form of data input, such as speech-to-text systems, Braille keyboards, or similar type instruments.
Many devices are known and commercially available for general alphanumeric input, such as physical computer keyboards and keypads or cell phone keypads, for just a few examples. Unfortunately, the keyboard and keypad interfaces for these products have not been readily adapted for visually impaired people. There is a definite need for enhancements to available input devices such as these, making them more useful for the visually impaired.